Current status of public water access and use in rural area of Thua Thien Hue province: the case studies of Dien Loc, Quang Ngan and Quang Tho communes

JOURNAL OF SCIENCE, Hue University, Vol. 69, No. 6, 2011<br /> <br /> CURRENT STATUS OF PUBLIC WATER ACCESS<br /> AND USE IN RURAL AREA OF THUA THIEN HUE PROVINCE: THE CASE<br /> STUDIES OF DIEN LOC, QUANG NGAN AND QUANG THO COMMUNES<br /> Pham Khac Lieu, Tran Anh Tuan and Nguyen Bac Giang<br /> College of Sciences, Hue University<br /> <br /> Abstract. Consideration on clean water has always been given to rural areas in Vietnam as<br /> a whole and particularly in Thua Thien Hue province. Recently, great efforts of Thua Thien<br /> Hue Water Supply and Construction Company (HUEWACO) have brought about a<br /> substantially increased number of households gaining access to public water in both urban<br /> and rural areas. To provide a basis for the development of public water supply network in<br /> rural area of the province, it is needed to conduct a study on the status of public water<br /> access and use in some target communes. Semi-structured interview and questionnaire<br /> survey on such issues in three rural communes namely Dien Loc (Phong Dien district),<br /> Quang Ngan and Quang Tho (Quang Dien district) shows that the levels of water access to<br /> centralized public water system and water use vary significantly between three communes.<br /> It is also revealed that there still exist complaints regarding the public water service such as<br /> water quality, suspension of supply and low pressure. The proportion of complaining<br /> respondents is the highest in Dien Loc and the lowest in Quang Tho. Approximately 63.2%<br /> of survey households in Dien Loc, 70.9% in Quang Ngan and 76.5% in Quang Tho<br /> believed that the current prices are reasonable. More than 90% of them said in the event the<br /> high quality of public water was secured, they were willing to pay a higher water price.<br /> Keywords: water access, water use, rural area, Dien Loc, Quang Ngan, Quang Tho.<br /> <br /> 1<br /> <br /> Introduction<br /> <br /> Unclean water, coupled with a lack of basic sanitation conditions, kills at least 1.6<br /> million children under the age of 5 in the world every year (WHO and UNICEF, 2006).<br /> At present, there is only 46% of rural population in Vietnam accessible to clean water.<br /> In a bid of improving the domestic water service for rural communities, the Ministry of<br /> Agriculture and Rural Development has developed a national project on the<br /> management of domestic water quality in rural areas and continued the implementation<br /> of national targeted programme on rural clean water and sanitation. Under this<br /> programme, it is expected to achieve 100% of rural population accessible to the<br /> standard clean water by 2020 [5].<br /> 65<br /> <br /> Over the past several years, Thua Thien Hue Water Supply and Construction<br /> Company (HUEWACO) has significantly expanded its water supply system. In<br /> conjunction with the development of its water supply plants to accelerate the urban<br /> water production, HUEWACO has been hunting for various financial resources to<br /> develop its water supply network into rural areas of the province. As a result, the<br /> number of rural communes accessible to public water has been increasing considerably.<br /> By now, the population accessible to public water amounts to over 700 thousand people,<br /> representing 65% of total provincial population (HUEWACO, 2010).<br /> Currently, HUEWACO is carrying out a provincial water supply project worth<br /> US$ 1.5 million which is granted by the Asian Development Bank. The project is<br /> considered a fundamental basis for supplying clean and safe water to rural areas,<br /> especially to coastal areas of the province. In addition, other foreign donors are also<br /> committed to various supports on the development of HUEWACO’s facilities. Of<br /> which, a new water supply plant with advanced ceramic membrane filtration technology<br /> will be constructed in the coastal area to supply public water to a number of coastal<br /> communes. Thus, a survey on some key characteristics of public water access and use in<br /> some target areas is needed to assess the feasibility of the advanced water supply plant.<br /> This paper, whilst presenting the survey results on some characteristics of public water<br /> use in 3 rural communes: Dien Loc, Quang Ngan and Quang Tho, tries to assess the<br /> local acceptability on the public water price and the quality of public water service.<br /> <br /> 2<br /> <br /> Study area and methods<br /> <br /> 2.1<br /> <br /> Overview of study communes<br /> Study commune<br /> <br /> Fig. 1. Location map of Dien Loc commune.<br /> 66<br /> <br /> Dien Loc commune is one of 15 communes of Phong Dien district (see Fig. 1). It<br /> consists of 8 coastal villages with a total population of 6,500 people and 1,112<br /> households in 2009. The major livelihoods of residents in the commune are crop<br /> cultivation and animal husbandry. Other livelihoods include aquaculture, fishing,<br /> forestry and businesses. The average per capita income is 16 million VND/year [1].<br /> Quang Ngan is a coastal sandy commune with a total land area of 1,110 ha. It<br /> belongs to Quang Dien district and consists of 10 villages. The total population of the<br /> commune in 2009 is 5,645 people with 1,400 households. The major livelihood of local<br /> residents is farming. Other livelihoods may include aquaculture, forestry, services and<br /> craft production. The average per capita income is 9 million VND/year in 2009 [2].<br /> Quang Tho is a lowland commune with a total land area of 957.7 ha. It<br /> comprises 8 villages and is one of 10 communes of Quang Dien district. The total<br /> population of Quang Tho is 6,916 with 1,732 households in 2009. The major livelihood<br /> of the commune is crop cultivation. Other livelihoods are animal husbandry and<br /> services. In 2009, the average per capita income is 9.5 million VND/year [3] Fig. 2<br /> shows the location map of the two communes.<br /> <br /> Study communes<br /> <br /> Fig. 2. Location map of Quang Ngan and Quang Tho communes.<br /> <br /> 2.2<br /> <br /> Study methods<br /> <br /> Questionnaires and interviews were used to collect data on the characteristics of<br /> household water use in 3 study communes and their opinions on the quality of public<br /> water service.<br /> <br /> 67<br /> <br /> 2.2.1<br /> <br /> Questionnaire survey<br /> <br /> The questionnaire survey was conducted in December, 2010 by 6 trained interviewers of<br /> the Department of Environmental Science, College of Sciences, Hue University. The<br /> survey team was broken up into 3 groups. The interviewers asked questions and<br /> recorded responses from each household respondent.<br /> The proper sampling technique was used to ensure that the sample under study<br /> represents the entire study. The quantity of questionnaires distributed at each village is<br /> based on the number of its households which were randomly selected to ensure<br /> representative sampling. There were 57 questionnaires distributed in 8 villages of Dien<br /> Loc commune. The number of questionnaires distributed in 10 villages of Quang Ngan<br /> and 8 villages Quang Tho is 55 and 51 respectively.<br /> The questionnaire survey was administered face-to-face with an in-person<br /> interview at household level, and was conducted with household members of over 18<br /> years of age. Location of survey households was pre-marked in an available<br /> administrative commune map. Generally speaking, the main steps used to conduct the<br /> questionnaire survey include the following:<br /> (1). defining the objectives of the survey<br /> (2). identifying the sampling group<br /> (3). designing the questionnaire<br /> (4). conducting the pilot questionnaire<br /> (5). collecting feedback from the pilot and revising questionnaire<br /> (6). recording the answers<br /> (7). analyzing data with Microsoft Excel<br /> 2.2.2<br /> <br /> Semi-structured interview<br /> <br /> The survey group leaders met with relevant Commune People’s Committees and their<br /> staff in order to briefly introduce the purposes of the follow-up questionnaire survey and<br /> ask for their assistance. During the meetings, semi-structured interviews were<br /> undertaken to collect necessary information on socio-economic conditions, population<br /> and its distribution, health conditions, etc. of the communes. This also included the<br /> obtaining of an administrative map and land use map. The semi-structured interview is<br /> flexible, allowing new questions to be brought up as a result of what the interviewee<br /> says while making sure that we can get the in-depth information on what we are<br /> researching. Our semi-structure interview consists of both close-ended and open-ended<br /> questions.<br /> <br /> 68<br /> <br /> 3<br /> <br /> Results and discussion<br /> <br /> 3.1<br /> <br /> Public water use and supply<br /> <br /> In Dien Loc commune, the public water has been provided since 2007 from the water<br /> supply station constructed by Thua Thien Hue Center for Rural Clean Water and<br /> Sanitation. The water source supplied to the station is taken from O Lau River. In 2010,<br /> there was about 25% of the commune population using pubic water (Dien Loc<br /> Commune People’s Committee, 2010). The public water in Quang Ngan commune is<br /> provided from a water supply station funded by Canada Government in 2005. The<br /> station is now connected with Tu Ha water supply plant and under the management of<br /> HUEWACO. By now, about 43% of the total population in the commune have gained<br /> access to public water. The current situation of public water supply in Quang Tho is<br /> much better than Dien Loc and Quang Ngan communes. Located near HUEWACO’s Tu<br /> Ha water supply plant, most of households in Quang Tho commune are using public<br /> water of the plant. The proportion of household accessible the public water was 70% in<br /> 2008 and amounted to 90% in 2009.<br /> According to the results of our survey, the number of households accessible to<br /> public water in Dien Loc commune accounts for 24.6% of the total respondents. For<br /> Quang Ngan commune, such proportion is 42%. These two proportions are mostly<br /> compatible with the ones reported by Dien Loc and Quang Ngan Commune People’s<br /> Committees, which are 25% and 43% respectively. In Quang Tho commune, the survey<br /> results show that 100% of the survey households are accessible to public water supplied<br /> by Tu Ha water supply plant. As compared to that of 2009 provided by Quang Tho<br /> commune People’s Committees, the survey proportion is 10% higher. Such<br /> understandable difference is due to the recent investment of Quang Tho commune to<br /> increase the number of households using public water. Table 1 shows the average<br /> volumes of public water used at household level in the dry and wet seasons and the<br /> corresponding average payments in 3 survey communes.<br /> Table 1. Public water use at household level and its payment in 3 survey communes<br /> <br /> Parameter<br /> Number<br /> households<br /> water<br /> <br /> of<br /> using<br /> <br /> survey Dry season<br /> public<br /> Wet season<br /> <br /> Average volume of public Dry season<br /> water used per month (m3)<br /> Wet season<br /> 69<br /> <br /> Dien Loc<br /> <br /> Quang<br /> Ngan<br /> <br /> Quang Tho<br /> <br /> 14<br /> <br /> 23<br /> <br /> 51<br /> <br /> 14<br /> <br /> 23<br /> <br /> 51<br /> <br /> 9.62<br /> <br /> 13.25<br /> <br /> 12.71<br /> <br /> 5.96<br /> <br /> 10.62<br /> <br /> 9.04<br /> <br />